Seventy-nine-year-old California congresswoman Maxine Waters couldn’t make it to Thursday night’s Root 100 Gala at Guastavino’s in New York City, even though she was being presented with the first-ever Root 100 Gladiator Award for Public Service. Why? In her words, via video, she’s “trying to save our economy from the reckless tax measures” currently being pushed by Republicans. Still, she didn’t miss the opportunity to tell the crowd to keep up the good fight, with a bit of a modern twist. “African-Americans cannot afford to miss out,” she said. “We must . . . lead the resistance against all those who would like to turn back the clock on our progress. I encourage you to keep fighting, and in the words of millennials, stay woke.”

Thursday night’s event, honoring online magazine the Root’s annual list of influential African-Americans, followed Waters’s lead. The night’s hosts, CNN commentator Angela Rye and Extra correspondent AJ Calloway, said on the red carpet that they were going to focus on celebrating the achievements of the people in the room—and not the man in the Oval Office.

“You really can’t be a Debbie Downer at an event celebrating black excellence,” Rye told V.F. “Like, where they do that at? Don’t look at Donald Trump’s Twitter tonight . . . There was stuff in the script referencing him, and we were like, ‘No! We don’t want to talk about him.’ There’s no orange people being celebrated; it’s only the black people. There’s no orange person. We don’t have to talk about the Cheeto. I don’t have pockets; we have nowhere to put him.”

Inside the venue, honorees and their guests sat at dining tables as the names of notable black Americans projected onto the stone wall of the room. The evening, including musical performances from the likes of rapper Raheem DeVaughn, will be broadcast Sunday at 9 P.M. on Fusion.

In her speech, honoree Yamiche Alcindor, a national reporter who covers politics and social-justice issues for The New York Times, spoke to the change that she can make as a person of color in the media.

“Just a few weeks ago, one of my colleagues asked me if I ever get tired of writing about black people,” she shared. “ . . . In reality I shouldn’t have to explain that ‘black people,’ as a beat, is as important as covering Wall Street or the United Nations . . . I say, ‘No, I don’t get tired of covering America.’”

Model and actress Veronica Webb, there to honor MTV personality Franchesca Ramsey, told V.F. that this week, and an election in Virginia in which a trans woman unseated a Republican man, was a heartening one for her.

“When I think about my parents, who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement . . . they marched and they did everything they could to make sure everyone has the right to vote . . . To see people turn out at the polls in record numbers? Amazing.”

The View’s Sunny Hostin, there as an audience member, told V.F. that this week’s elections has given her hope for the future.

“People voted for their values, and I really think that that was a gleaming endorsement almost against some of the values this past year. I was, rather than feeling dismayed, as I have often felt, I felt extremely hopeful, extremely hopeful.”

After the ceremony wrapped, guests enjoyed dessert, dancing, and one of the night’s surprise highlights: selfies with Common.

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Mary Pickford

“America’s Sweetheart” of the silent era was more than a movie star—she was a shrewd businesswoman who co-founded United Artists at age 27, giving her the power to produce and distribute her own films. The Oscar-winning actress, who also co-founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was a savvy negotiator who knew her worth—earning at least $1 million per year as an actor-producer between 1919 and her retirement. ($1 million in 1919 would be over $14 million today if adjusted for inflation.)

Photo: From Bettmann Collection.

Jane Fonda

Though she is a two-time Oscar-winning, seven-time Oscar-nominated actress, Fonda is a role model for other reasons—specifically her outspokenness, ability to reinvent herself, and her quest to empower women. Never content to just be Henry Fonda’s daughter, the actress threw herself into her passions, becoming a successful actor, workout-video pioneer, political activist, and women’s advocate. She has written and spoken candidly about her self-esteem issues in an effort to help young women avoid the same obstacles she encountered. She co-founded the Women’s Media Center to amplify women’s voices and has used her celebrity to inspire, empower, and draw attention to greater human causes.

Photo: By Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Afp/Getty Images.

Ida Lupino

A prolific actress of the 1930s and 1940s, Lupino decided she wanted to tackle “the interesting work” on set and formed an independent production company so that she could write, produce, and direct her own features. The first woman to direct a film noir, 1953’s The Hitch-Hiker, Lupino directed a total of eight socially conscious films that grappled with complex subjects like unwed mothers, rape, and bigamy. The only female director in the studio system during the 1950s, Lupino prided herself on being a “bulldozer” in business meetings—but adopted a softer touch on set, where she insisted cast and crew call her “mother.”

Photo: From Everett Collection.

Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey revolutionized the talk-television landscape with her 25-season syndicated show. But she has also proven herself an incredible businesswoman, building a multi-media empire around the idea of self-fulfillment and becoming North America’s first multi-billionaire black person; as of 2017, she is also the richest African-American person in the world, with an estimated value of $3 billion. Most importantly, Winfrey demonstrated that success and kindness aren’t mutually exclusive. In addition to creating the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, Winfrey has donated over $400 million to educational causes alone.

Photo: By Vera Anderson/Wireimage.

Edith Head

All hail Edith Head, the eight-time Oscar-winning costume designer . . . who had no idea what she was doing when she was hired at Paramount in 1924. (She borrowed fellow art students’ sketches to pass off as her own during the job interview.) She clearly learned the art of costume design and then some, earning 35 Oscar nominations, designing costumes for over 1,000 films, and outfitting every major golden-age star from Bette Davis to Audrey Hepburn. She was the first female head designer at a major studio, and her designs remain inspiration for what women wear today—on and off screen.

Photo: By Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.

Ava DuVernay

In nearly a decade since DuVernay made her feature directorial debut, the filmmaker has already blazed a powerful path through Hollywood—becoming the first black female filmmaker to win Sundance’s best director prize (for Middle of Nowhere); be nominated for a Golden Globe (for Selma); and have her film nominated for the best picture Oscar (for Selma). In 2016, DuVernay reached another inspiring milestone when she was tapped by Disney to helm its adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, making her the first black female director to oversee a live-action film with a budget over $100 million.

Photo: By Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

Frances Marion

The most renowned female scriptwriter of the 20th century, Marion was also the most in-demand writer, male or female, between 1915 and the late 1930s, earning $3,000 a week—the equivalent of more than $40,000 today. She was the first writer to win two Oscars, wrote over 130 produced films, resurrected the career of Marie Dressler (a comedian Hollywood had literally written off because of her age), and wrote the 1937 book How to Write and Sell Film Stories.

Photo: From Apic/Getty Images.

Mary Pickford

“America’s Sweetheart” of the silent era was more than a movie star—she was a shrewd businesswoman who co-founded United Artists at age 27, giving her the power to produce and distribute her own films. The Oscar-winning actress, who also co-founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was a savvy negotiator who knew her worth—earning at least $1 million per year as an actor-producer between 1919 and her retirement. ($1 million in 1919 would be over $14 million today if adjusted for inflation.)

From Bettmann Collection.

Jane Fonda

Though she is a two-time Oscar-winning, seven-time Oscar-nominated actress, Fonda is a role model for other reasons—specifically her outspokenness, ability to reinvent herself, and her quest to empower women. Never content to just be Henry Fonda’s daughter, the actress threw herself into her passions, becoming a successful actor, workout-video pioneer, political activist, and women’s advocate. She has written and spoken candidly about her self-esteem issues in an effort to help young women avoid the same obstacles she encountered. She co-founded the Women’s Media Center to amplify women’s voices and has used her celebrity to inspire, empower, and draw attention to greater human causes.

By Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Afp/Getty Images.

Ida Lupino

A prolific actress of the 1930s and 1940s, Lupino decided she wanted to tackle “the interesting work” on set and formed an independent production company so that she could write, produce, and direct her own features. The first woman to direct a film noir, 1953’s The Hitch-Hiker, Lupino directed a total of eight socially conscious films that grappled with complex subjects like unwed mothers, rape, and bigamy. The only female director in the studio system during the 1950s, Lupino prided herself on being a “bulldozer” in business meetings—but adopted a softer touch on set, where she insisted cast and crew call her “mother.”

From Everett Collection.

Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey revolutionized the talk-television landscape with her 25-season syndicated show. But she has also proven herself an incredible businesswoman, building a multi-media empire around the idea of self-fulfillment and becoming North America’s first multi-billionaire black person; as of 2017, she is also the richest African-American person in the world, with an estimated value of $3 billion. Most importantly, Winfrey demonstrated that success and kindness aren’t mutually exclusive. In addition to creating the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, Winfrey has donated over $400 million to educational causes alone.

By Vera Anderson/Wireimage.

Dorothy Arzner

“The most prolific woman studio director in the history of American cinema,” according to one film scholar, Arzner directed a total of 20 features, was the first female member of the Directors Guild of America, and is credited with inventing the boom microphone. Arzner, who specialized in depicting nuanced female characters and female friendships, spoke about the importance of women directors, saying, in 1930, “Try as a man may, he will never be able to get the woman’s viewpoint in telling certain stories.”

From Everett Collection.

Hattie McDaniel

Born in Kansas to former slaves, McDaniel became the first African-American actor to win an Academy Award in 1940 for her role in Gone with the Wind (after famously demanding that David O. Selznick submit her name for a nomination). The win was bittersweet: McDaniel and her escort were forced to sit at a segregated table during the ceremony rather than with McDaniel’s co-stars. McDaniel—who was also the first black woman to sing on the radio in the U.S.—played 74 maid roles in her career, though McDaniel would tell the press, “I’d rather play a maid than be a maid.”

From Everett Collection.

Olivia de Havilland

At the age of 27, Havilland took on the Hollywood studio system and won—a bold battle considering that the actress could have ended her career had her 1944 lawsuit against Warner Bros., which freed actors from perpetual contract bondage, had a different outcome. Three years later, Havilland won the first of her two Oscars for the aptly titled To Each His Own. Her legal battle is one of the most significant in Hollywood history, having forever leveled the playing field between studios and actors.

From Bettmann Collection.

Kathryn Bigelow

In 2010, the Hurt Locker filmmaker made history when she became the first woman—and, thus far, the only woman—to win the best director Oscar. (Bigelow was only the fourth-ever female to be nominated.) The war thriller, which won best picture as well, also helped shatter the stereotype about what kind of films women can direct.

From MGM/Everett Collection.

Shonda Rhimes

The mastermind behind Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and Private Practice has radically changed the television landscape by proving that successful shows can be centered around, and dreamed up by, complicated, powerful women of all races and backgrounds. Rhimes’s impact on television diversity has been so noticeable—aside from Olivia Pope’s legion of Gladiators, Viola Davis became the first African-American woman to win a lead actress Emmy for her work on the Rhimes-helmed How to Get Away with Murder—that some use the “Shonda Rhimes effect” to describe the noticeable increase in diverse television casts since Scandal premiered.

By Jason Laveris/Filmmagic.

Lucille Ball

Though the public knew her as the beloved, scatterbrained housewife she played on her titular sitcom, Ball was also a wickedly smart businesswoman who, in 1962, became the first woman to head a major studio after buying ex-husband Desi Arnaz’s stake in their Desilu Productions. The company was initially created in 1950, after CBS had passed on their I Love Lucy sitcom idea. The pair were so determined that they produced a vaudeville act themselves, sold it to CBS, and watched as it become of the most popular programs in television industry, living on in rerun form for decades after.

From CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images.

Alice Guy Blaché

The first female director and producer, and the first narrative filmmaker full stop, Guy Blaché experimented with special effects, diverse casting, and gender reversal in the over 1,000 films she oversaw between 1896 and 1922. (Only about 130 survive.) She is also credited with creating the position of head of production, which later became the basis for the studio system. Even in those early days, when Guy Blaché was shaping the future of film firsthand, she understood that a female director was a rarity: “It is true that I passed for a phenomenon,” she wrote in her memoir.

From Everett Collection.

Alison Bechdel

Though Oscar-winning actresses like Meryl Streep and Geena Davis have volunteered their resources in the campaign for gender equality in Hollywood—by funding a screenwriting lab and commissioning research on the subject—cartoonist Alison Bechdel created a simple metric system to hold Hollywood movies accountable. The test, which first appeared in 1985, asks whether a film features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. Although that seems simple enough, recent major motion pictures like The Magnificent Seven, The Legend of Tarzan, and Doctor Strangefailed to pass the test.

By Alice Kenney/The Washington Post/Getty Images.

Hedy Lamarr

Once dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world,” the actress enjoyed her hobby outside Hollywood more: inventing. After divorcing a wealthy arms manufacturer, Lamarr used the information gleaned from him about top-secret weapon systems to design a radio-guided torpedo that used the same “spread-spectrum” technology that would one day be used in cell phones and Wi-Fi connections. Lamarr did not receive recognition for her invention until 1997, when the Electronic Frontier Foundation honored Lamarr and her collaborator, George Antheil, with the Pioneer Award. Aware that her beauty made it more difficult to be taken seriously for her mind, Lamarr later wrote that her looks “brought me tragedy and heartache for five decades. My face is a mask I cannot remove.”

By Joe Petrella/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images.

Sherry Lansing

Having rerouted a short-lived career as an actress to work behind the scenes, Lansing has broken a series of glass ceilings for women in Hollywood—becoming the first female president of 20th Century Fox in 1980 and the first female studio head in 1992, after accepting the chairmanship of Paramount Pictures’ Motion Picture Group. During her time at Paramount, she oversaw the release of close to 200 films, including Oscar winners Forrest Gump and Titanic.

By Sgranitz/Wireimage.

Edith Head

All hail Edith Head, the eight-time Oscar-winning costume designer . . . who had no idea what she was doing when she was hired at Paramount in 1924. (She borrowed fellow art students’ sketches to pass off as her own during the job interview.) She clearly learned the art of costume design and then some, earning 35 Oscar nominations, designing costumes for over 1,000 films, and outfitting every major golden-age star from Bette Davis to Audrey Hepburn. She was the first female head designer at a major studio, and her designs remain inspiration for what women wear today—on and off screen.

By Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.

Ava DuVernay

In nearly a decade since DuVernay made her feature directorial debut, the filmmaker has already blazed a powerful path through Hollywood—becoming the first black female filmmaker to win Sundance’s best director prize (for Middle of Nowhere); be nominated for a Golden Globe (for Selma); and have her film nominated for the best picture Oscar (for Selma). In 2016, DuVernay reached another inspiring milestone when she was tapped by Disney to helm its adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, making her the first black female director to oversee a live-action film with a budget over $100 million.

By Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

Frances Marion

The most renowned female scriptwriter of the 20th century, Marion was also the most in-demand writer, male or female, between 1915 and the late 1930s, earning $3,000 a week—the equivalent of more than $40,000 today. She was the first writer to win two Oscars, wrote over 130 produced films, resurrected the career of Marie Dressler (a comedian Hollywood had literally written off because of her age), and wrote the 1937 book How to Write and Sell Film Stories.